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in  2011  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/velveteenrabbitoObian 


The  Velveteen  Rabbit 


THE 

Velveteen    Rabbit 

OR 

How  Toys  Become  Real 

By 

Margery  Williams    Bi^^o 


With  Illustrations  by 
WILLIAM    NICHOLSON 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  DORAN  &  COMPANY,  Inc. 


THE  VELVETEEN  RABBIT 

-C— 

PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


J 


I* 


To  Francesco  ^Bianco 

from 
The  'Velveteen  T(abbit 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Christmas  Morning 1 1 

The  Skin  Horse  Tells  His  Story       ...  13 

Spring  Time       . 16 

Summer  Days 19 

Anxious  Times 25 

The  Fairy  Flower 29 

At  Last!     At  Lastl        31 


The  Velveteen  Rabbit 


fAristm  a.s   ?n  train 


li 


The 
Velveteen  Rabbit 


Or  How  Toys  Become  Real 


HERE  was  once  a  velveteen 
rabbit,  and  in  the  beginning  he 
was  really  splendid.  He  was 
fat  and  bunchy,  as  a  rabbit 
should  be;  his  coat  was  spotted 
brown  and  white,  he  had  real  thread  whiskers, 
and  his  ears  were  lined  with  pink  sateen.  On 
Christmas  morning,  when  he  sat  wedged  in  the 
top  of  the  Boy's  stocking,  with  a  sprig  of  holly 
between  his  paws,  the  effect  was  charming. 

There  were  other  things  in  the  stocking, 
nuts  and  oranges  and  a  toy  engine,  and  choco- 
late almonds  and  a  clockwork  mouse,  but  the 
Rabbit  was  quite  the  best  of  all.  For  at  least 
two  hours  the  Boy  loved  him,  and  then  Aunts 
and  Uncles  came  to  dinner,  and  there  was  a 
great  rustling  of  tissue  paper  and  unwrapping 
of  parcels,  and  in  the  excitement  of  looking  at 

C«3 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

all  the  new  presents  the  Velveteen  Rabbit  was 
forgotten. 

For  a  long  time  he  lived  in  the  toy  cupboard 
or  on  the  nursery  floor,  and  no  one  thought 
very  much  about  him.  He  was  naturally  shy, 
and  being  only  made  of  velveteen,  some  of  the 
more  expensive  toys  quite  snubbed  him.  The 
mechanical  toys  were  very  superior,  and 
looked  down  upon  every  one  else;  they  were 
full  of  modern  ideas,  and  pretended  they  were 
real.  The  model  boat,  who  had  lived  through 
two  seasons  and  lost  most  of  his  paint,  caught 
the  tone  from  them  and  never  missed  an  oppor- 
tunity of  referring  to  his  rigging  in  technical 
terms.  The  Rabbit  could  not  claim  to  be  a 
model  of  anything,  for  he  didn't  know  that 
real  rabbits  existed;  he  thought  they  were  all 
stuffed  with  sawdust  like  himself,  and  he  un- 
derstood that  sawdust  was  quite  out-of-date 
and  should  never  be  mentioned  in  modern 
circles.  Even  Timothy,  the  jointed  wooden 
lion,  who  was  made  by  the  disabled  soldiers, 
and  should  have  had  broader  views,  put  on 
airs  and  pretended   he   was  connected   with 

[12] 


TAe  J%in  Morse\ 


\eils  Ais  story 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

Government.  Between  them  all  the  poor  lit- 
tle Rabbit  was  made  to  feel  himself  very  in- 
significant and  commonplace,  and  the  only 
person  who  was  kind  to  him  at  all  was  the  Skin 
Horse. 

The  Skin  Horse  had  lived  longer  in  the 
nursery  than  any  of  the  others.  He  was  so  old 
that  his  brown  coat  was  bald  in  patches  and 
showed  the  seams  underneath,  and  most  of  the 
hairs  in  his  tail  had  been  pulled  out  to  string 
bead  necklaces.  He  was  wise,  for  he  had  seen 
a  long  succession  of  mechanical  toys  arrive  to 
boast  and  swagger,  and  by-and-by  break  their 
mainsprings  and  pass  away,  and  he  knew  that 
they  were  only  toys,  and  would  never  turn 
into  anything  else.  For  nursery  magic  is  very 
strange  and  wonderful,  and  only  those  play- 
things that  are  old  and  wise  and  experienced 
like  the  Skin  Horse  understand  all  about  it. 

"What  is  REAL?"  asked  the  Rabbit  one 
day,  when  they  were  lying  side  by  side  near  the 
nursery  fender,  before  Nana  came  to  tidy  the 
room.  "Does  it  mean  having  things  that  buzz 
inside  you  and  a  stick-out  handle?" 

D33 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

"Real  isn't  how  you  are  made,"  said  the  Skin 
Horse.  "It's  a  thing  that  happens  to  you. 
When  a  child  loves  you  for  a  long,  long  time, 
not  just  to  play  with,  but  REALLY  loves  you, 
then  you  become  Real." 

"Does  it  hurt?"  asked  the  Rabbit. 

"Sometimes,"  said  the  Skin  Horse,  for  he 
was  always  truthful.  "When  you  are  Real 
you  don't  mind  being  hurt." 

"Does  it  happen  all  at  once,  like  being 
wound  up,"  he  asked,  "or  bit  by  bit?" 

"It  doesn't  happen  all  at  once,"  said  the 
Skin  Horse.  "You  become.  It  takes  a  long 
time.  That's  why  it  doesn't  often  happen  to 
people  who  break  easily,  or  have  sharp  edges, 
or  who  have  to  be  carefully  kept.  Generally, 
by  the  time  you  are  Real,  most  of  your  hair  has 
been  loved  off,  and  your  eyes  drop  out  and  you 
get  loose  in  the  joints  and  very  shabby.  But 
these  things  don't  matter  at  all,  because  once 
you  are  Real  you  can't  be  ugly,  except  to 
people  who  don't  understand." 

"I  suppose  you  are  Real?"  said  the  Rabbit. 
And  then  he  wished  he  had  not  said  it,  for  he 

D43 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

thought  the  Skin  Horse  might  be  sensitive. 
But  the  Skin  Horse  only  smiled. 

"The  Boy's  Uncle  made  me  Real,"  he  said. 
"That  was  a  great  many  years  ago;  but  once 
you  are  Real  you  can't  become  unreal  again. 
It  lasts  for  always." 

The  Rabbit  sighed.  He  thought  it  would 
be  a  long  time  before  this  magic  called  Real 
happened  to  him.  He  longed  to  become  Real, 
to  know  what  it  felt  like;  and  yet  the  idea  of 
growing  shabby  and  losing  his  eyes  and  whisk- 
ers was  rather  sad.  He  wished  that  he  could 
become  it  without  these  uncomfortable  things 
happening  to  him. 

There  was  a  person  called  Nana  who  ruled 
the  nursery.  Sometimes  she  took  no  notice  of 
the  playthings  lying  about,  and  sometimes,  for 
no  reason  whatever,  she  went  swooping  about 
like  a  great  wind  and  hustled  them  away  in 
cupboards.  She  called  this  "tidying  up,"  and 
the  playthings  all  hated  it,  especially  the  tin 
ones.  The  Rabbit  didn't  mind  it  so  much,  for 
wherever  he  was  thrown  he  came  down  soft. 

One  evening,  when  the  Boy  was  going  to 
bed,  he  couldn't  find  the  china  dog  that  always 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

slept  with  him.  Nana  was  in  a  hurry,  and  it 
was  too  much  trouble  to  hunt  for  china  dogs  at 
bedtime,  so  she  simply  looked  about  her,  and 
seeing  that  the  toy  cupboard  door  stood  open, 
she  made  a  swoop. 

"Here,"  she  said,  "take  your  old  Bunny! 
He'll  do  to  sleep  with  you !"  And  she  dragged 
the  Rabbit  out  by  one  ear,  and  put  him  into 
the  Boy's  arms. 

That  night,  and  for  many  nights  after,  the 
Velveteen  Rabbit  slept  in  the  Boy's  bed.  At 
first  he  found  it  rather  uncomfortable,  for  the 
Boy  hugged  him  very  tight,  and  sometimes  he 
rolled  over  on  him,  and  sometimes  he  pushed 
him  so  far  under  the  pillow  that  the  Rabbit 
could  scarcely  breathe.  And  he  missed,  too, 
those  long  moonlight  hours  in  the  nursery, 
when  all  the  house  was  silent,  and  his  talks 
with  the  Skin  Horse.  But  very  soon  he  grew 
to  like  it,  for  the  Boy  used  to  talk  to  him,  and 
made  nice  tunnels  for  him  under  the  bed- 
clothes that  he  said  were  like  the  burrows  the 
real  rabbits  lived  in.  And  they  had  splendid 
games  together,  in  whispers,  when  Nana  had 
gone  away  to  her  supper  and  left  the  night- 
light  burning  on  the  mantelpiece.    And  when 

Do] 


ii  ■■"!■  __■■■■!      ir-«iii     i^M>iifcafciii—  wwrni-  — infm 


Spring  time 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

the  Boy  dropped  off  to  sleep,  the  Rabbit  would 
snuggle  down  close  under  his  little  warm  chin 
and  dream,  with  the  Boy's  hands  clasped  close 
round  him  all  night  long. 

And  so  time  went  on,  and  the  little  Rabbit 
was  very  happy — so  happy  that  he  never 
noticed  how  his  beautiful  velveteen  fur  was 
getting  shabbier  and  shabbier,  and  his  tail 
coming  unsewn,  and  all  the  pink  rubbed  off  his 
nose  where  the  Boy  had  kissed  him. 

Spring  came,  and  they  had  long  days  in  the 
garden,  for  wherever  the  Boy  went  the  Rabbit 
went  too.  He  had  rides  in  the  wheelbarrow, 
and  picnics  on  the  grass,  and  lovely  fairy  huts 
built  for  him  under  the  raspberry  canes  behind 
the  flower  border.  And  once,  when  the  Boy 
was  called  away  suddenly  to  go  out  to  tea,  the 
Rabbit  was  left  out  on  the  lawn  until  long 
after  dusk,  and  Nana  had  to  come  and  look  for 
him  with  the  candle  because  the  Boy  couldn't 
go  to  sleep  unless  he  was  there.  He  was  wet 
through  with  the  dew  and  quite  earthy  from 
diving  into  the  burrows  the  Boy  had  made  for 
him  in  the  flower  bed,  and  Nana  grumbled  as 
she  rubbed  him  off  with  a  corner  of  her  apron. 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

"You  must  have  your  old  Bunny!"  she  said. 
"Fancy  all  that  fuss  for  a  toy!" 

The  Boy  sat  up  in  bed  and  stretched  out  his 
hands. 

"Give  me  my  Bunny!"  he  said.  "You 
mustn't  say  that.  He  isn't  a  toy.  He's 
REAL!" 

When  the  little  Rabbit  heard  that  he  was 
happy,  for  he  knew  that  what  the  Skin  Horse 
had  said  was  true  at  last.  The  nursery  magic 
had  happened  to  him,  and  he  was  a  toy  no 
longer.  He  was  Real.  The  Boy  himself  had 
said  it. 

That  night  he  was  almost  too  happy  to 
sleep,  and  so  much  love  stirred  in  his  little  saw- 
dust heart  that  it  almost  burst.  And  into  his 
boot-button  eyes,  that  had  long  ago  lost  their 
polish,  there  came  a  look  of  wisdom  and 
beauty,  so  that  even  Nana  noticed  it  next 
morning  when  she  picked  him  up,  and  said,  "I 
declare  if  that  old  Bunny  hasn't  got  quite  a 
knowing  expression!" 


D83 


L  -w^v.     'A 


/« 


\k  Jays 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 


That  was  a  wonderful  Summer ! 

Near  the  house  where  they  lived  there  was  a 
wood,  and  in  the  long  June  evenings  the  Boy 
liked  to  go  there  after  tea  to  play.  He  took 
the  Velveteen  Rabbit  with  him,  and  before  he 
wandered  off  to  pick  flowers,  or  play  at  brig- 
ands among  the  trees,  he  always  made  the 
Rabbit  a  little  nest  somewhere  among  the 
bracken,  where  he  would  be  quite  cosy,  for  he 
was  a  kind-hearted  little  boy  and  he  liked 
Bunny  to  be  comfortable.  One  evening,  while 
the  Rabbit  was  lying  there  alone,  watching  the 
ants  that  ran  to  and  fro  between  his  velvet 
paws  in  the  grass,  he  saw  two  strange  beings 
creep  out  of  the  tall  bracken  near  him. 

They  were  rabbits  like  himself,  but  quite 
furry  and  bran-new.  They  must  have  been 
very  well  made,  for  their  seams  didn't  show  at 
all,  and  they  changed  shape  in  a  queer  way 
when  they  moved ;  one  minute  they  were  long 

D93 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

and  thin  and  the  next  minute  fat  and  bunchy, 
instead  of  always  staying  the  same  like  he  did. 
Their  feet  padded  softly  on  the  ground,  and 
they  crept  quite  close  to  him,  twitching  their 
noses,  while  the  Rabbit  stared  hard  to  see 
which  side  the  clockwork  stuck  out,  for  he 
knew  that  people  who  jump  generally  have 
something  to  wind  them  up.  But  he  couldn't 
see  it.  They  were  evidently  a  new  kind  of 
rabbit  altogether. 

They  stared  at  him,  and  the  little  Rabbit 
stared  back.  And  all  the  time  their  noses 
twitched. 

"Why  don't  you  get  up  and  play  with  us?" 
one  of  them  asked. 

"I  don't  feel  like  it,"  said  the  Rabbit,  for  he 
didn't  want  to  explain  that  he  had  no  clock- 
work. 

"Ho!"  said  the  furry  rabbit.  "It's  as  easy 
as  anything."  And  he  gave  a  big  hop  sideways 
and  stood  on  his  hind  legs. 

"I  don't  believe  you  can!"  he  said. 

"I  can !"  said  the  little  Rabbit.  "I  can  jump 
higher  than  anything!"  He  meant  when  the 
Boy  threw  him,  but  of  course  he  didn't  want  to 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 


say  so. 

"Can  you  hop  on  your  hind  legs?"  asked  the 
furry  rabbit. 

That  was  a  dreadful  question,  for  the  Vel- 
veteen Rabbit  had  no  hind  legs  at  all!  The 
back  of  him  was  made  all  in  one  piece,  like  a 
pincushion.  He  sat  still  in  the  bracken,  and 
hoped  that  the  other  rabbits  wouldn't  notice. 

"I  don't  want  to!"  he  said  again. 

But  the  wild  rabbits  have  very  sharp  eyes. 
And  this  one  stretched  out  his  neck  and  looked. 

"He  hasn't  got  any  hind  legs!"  he  called 
out.  "Fancy  a  rabbit  without  any  hind  legs !" 
And  he  began  to  laugh. 

"I  have!"  cried  the  little  Rabbit.  "I  have 
got  hind  legs !    I  am  sitting  on  them !" 

"Then  stretch  them  out  and  show  me,  like 
this!"  said  the  wild  rabbit.  And  he  began  to 
whirl  round  and  dance,  till  the  little  Rabbit 
got  quite  dizzy. 

"I  don't  like  dancing,"  he  said.  "I'd  rather 
sit  still!" 

But  all  the  while  he  was  longing  to  dance, 
for  a  funny  new  tickly  feeling  ran  through 
him,  and  he  felt  he  would  give  anything  in  the 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

world  to  oe  able  to  jump  about  like  these  rab- 
bits did. 

The  strange  rabbit  stopped  dancing,  and 
came  quite  close.  He  came  so  close  this  time 
that  his  long  whiskers  brushed  the  Velveteen 
Rabbit's  ear,  and  then  he  wrinkled  his  nose 
suddenly  and  flattened  his  ears  and  jumped 
backwards. 

"He  doesn't  smell  right!"  he  exclaimed. 
"He  isn't  a  rabbit  at  all!    He  isn't  real!" 

"I  am  Real!"  said  the  little  Rabbit.  "I  am 
Real!  The  Boy  said  so!"  And  he  nearly 
began  to  cry. 

Just  then  there  was  a  sound  of  footsteps, 
and  the  Boy  ran  past  near  them,  and  with  a 
stamp  of  feet  and  a  flash  of  white  tails  the  two 
strange  rabbits  disappeared. 

"Come  back  and  play  with  me!"  called  the 
little  Rabbit.  "Oh,  do  come  back!  I  know  I 
am  Real!" 

But  there  was  no  answer,  only  the  little  ants 
ran  to  and  fro,  and  the  bracken  swayed  gently 
where  the  two  strangers  had  passed.  The 
Velveteen  Rabbit  was  all  alone. 

"Oh,  dear!"  he  thought.     "Why  did  they 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

run  away  like  that?      Why  couldn't  they  stop 
and  talk  to  me?' 

For  a  long  time  he  lay  very  still,  watching 
the  bracken,  and  hoping  that  they  would  come 
back.  But  they  never  returned,  and  presently 
the  sun  sank  lower  and  the  little  white  moths 
fluttered  out,  and  the  Boy  came  and  carried 
him  home. 


fen 


cStnxious   times 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 


Weeks  passed,  and  the  little  Rabbit  grew 
very  old  and  shabby,  but  the  Boy  loved  him 
just  as  much.  He  loved  him  so  hard  that  he 
loved  all  his  whiskers  off,  and  the  pink  lining 
to  his  ears  turned  grey,  and  his  brown  spots 
faded.  He  even  began  to  lose  his  shape,  and 
he  scarcely  looked  like  a  rabbit  any  more,  ex- 
cept to  the  Boy.  To  him  he  was  always  beau- 
tiful, and  that  was  all  that  the  little  Rabbit 
cared  about.  He  didn't  mind  how  he  looked 
to  other  people,  because  the  nursery  magic  had 
made  him  Real,  and  when  you  are  Real  shab- 
biness  doesn't  matter. 

And  then,  one  day,  the  Boy  was  ill. 

His  face  grew  very  flushed,  and  he  talked  in 
his  sleep,  and  his  little  body  was  so  hot  that  it 
burned  the  Rabbit  when  he  held  him  close. 
Strange  people  came  and  went  in  the  nursery, 
and  a  light  burned  all  night,  and  through  it  all 
the  little  Velveteen  Rabbit  lay  there,  hidden 

Ptf] 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

from  sight  under  the  bedclothes,  and  he  never 
stirred,  for  he  was  afraid  that  if  they  found 
him  some  one  might  take  him  away,  and  he 
knew  that  the  Boy  needed  him. 

It  was  a  long  weary  time,  for  the  Boy  was 
too  ill  to  play,  and  the  little  Rabbit  found  it 
rather  dull  with  nothing  to  do  all  day  long. 
But  he  snuggled  down  patiently,  and  looked 
forward  to  the  time  when  the  Boy  should  be 
well  again,  and  they  would  go  out  in  the  gar- 
den amongst  the  flowers  and  the  butterflies 
and  play  splendid  games  in  the  raspberry 
thicket  like  they  used  to.  All  sorts  of  delight- 
ful things  he  planned,  and  while  the  Boy  lay 
half  asleep  he  crept  up  close  to  the  pillow  and 
whispered  them  in  his  ear.  And  presently  the 
fever  turned,  and  the  Boy  got  better.  He  was 
able  to  sit  up  in  bed  and  look  at  picture  books, 
while  the  little  Rabbit  cuddled  close  at  his 
side.  And  one  day,  they  let  him  get  up  and 
dress. 

It  was  a  bright,  sunny  morning,  and  the 
windows  stood  wide  open.  They  had  carried 
the  Boy  out  on  to  the  balcony,  wrapped  in  a 
shawl,  and  the  little  Rabbit  lay  tangled  up 

C26] 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

among  the  bedclothes,  thinking. 

The  Boy  was  going  to  the  seaside  to- 
morrow. Everything  was  arranged,  and  now 
it  only  remained  to  carry  out  the  doctor's 
orders.  They  talked  about  it  all,  while 
the  little  Rabbit  lay  under  the  bedclothes, 
with  just  his  head  peeping  out,  and  listened. 
The  room  was  to  be  disinfected,  and  all  the 
books  and  toys  that  the  Boy  had  played  with 
in  bed  must  be  burnt. 

"Hurrah !"  thought  the  little  Rabbit.  "To- 
morrow we  shall  go  to  the  seaside!"  For  the 
Boy  had  often  talked  of  the  seaside,  and  he 
wanted  very  much  to  see  the  big  waves  coming 
in,  and  the  tiny  crabs,  and  the  sand  castles. 

Just  then  Nana  caught  sight  of  him. 

"How  about  his  old  Bunny ?"  she  asked. 

"That?"  said  the  doctor.  "Why,  it's  a  mass 
of  scarlet  fever  germs! — Burn  it  at  once. 
What*?  Nonsense!  Get  him  a  new  one.  He 
mustn't  have  that  any  more!" 

And  so  the  little  Rabbit  was  put  into  a  sack 
with  the  old  picture-books  and  a  lot  of  rubbish, 
and  carried  out  to  the  end  of  the  garden  be- 
hind the  fowl-house.    That  was  a  fine  place  to 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

make  a  bonfire,  only  the  gardener  was  too  busy 
just  then  to  attend  to  it.  He  had  the  potatoes 
to  dig  and  the  green  peas  to  gather,  but  next 
morning  he  promised  to  come  quite  early  and 
burn  the  whole  lot. 

That  night  the  Boy  slept  in  a  different  bed- 
room, and  he  had  a  new  bunny  to  sleep  with 
him.  It  was  a  splendid  bunny,  all  white  plush 
with  real  glass  eyes,  but  the  Boy  was  too  ex- 
cited to  care  very  much  about  it.  For  to-mor- 
row he  was  going  to  the  seaside,  and  that  in 
itself  was  such  a  wonderful  thing  that  he  could 
think  of  nothing  else. 

And  while  the  Boy  was  asleep,  dreaming  of 
the  seaside,  the  little  Rabbit  lay  among  the  old 
picture-books  in  the  corner  behind  the  fowl- 
house,  and  he  felt  very  lonely.  The  sack  had 
been  left  untied,  and  so  by  wriggling  a  bit  he 
was  able  to  get  his  head  through  the  opening 
and  look  out.  He  was  shivering  a  little,  for  he 
had  always  been  used  to  sleeping  in  a  proper 
bed,  and  by  this  time  his  coat  had  worn  so  thin 
and  threadbare  from  hugging  that  it  was  no 
longer  any  protection  to  him.  Near  by  he 
could  see  the  thicket  of  raspberry  canes,  grow- 
th;] 


*7Ae  Pitiry  f  to  user 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

ing  tall  and  close  like  a  tropical  jungle,  in 
whose  shadow  he  had  played  with  the  Boy  on 
bygone  mornings.  He  thought  of  those  long 
sunlit  hours  in  the  garden — how  happy  they 
were — and  a  great  sadness  came  over  him. 
He  seemed  to  see  them  all  pass  before  him, 
each  more  beautiful  than  the  other,  the  fairy 
huts  in  the  flower-bed,  the  quiet  evenings  in 
the  wood  when  he  lay  in  the  bracken  and  the 
little  ants  ran  over  his  paws;  the  wonderful 
day  when  he  first  knew  that  he  was  Real.  He 
thought  of  the  Skin  Horse,  so  wise  and  gentle, 
and  all  that  he  had  told  him.  Of  what  use  was 
it  to  be  loved  and  lose  one's  beauty  and  become 
Real  if  it  all  ended  like  this?  And  a  tear,  a 
real  tear,  trickled  down  his  little  shabby  velvet 
nose  and  fell  to  the  ground. 

And  then  a  strange  thing  happened.  For 
where  the  tear  had  fallen  a  flower  grew  out  of 
the  ground,  a  mysterious  flower,  not  at  all  like 
any  that  grew  in  the  garden.  It  had  slender 
green  leaves  the  colour  of  emeralds,  and  in  the 
centre  of  the  leaves  a  blossom  like  a  golden 
cup.  It  was  so  beautiful  that  the  little  Rabbit 
forgot  to  cry,  and  just  lay  there  watching  it. 

\>9l 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

And  presently  the  blossom  opened,  and  out  of 
it  there  stepped  a  fairy. 

She  was  quite  the  loveliest  fairy  in  the 
whole  world.  Her  dress  was  of  pearl  and  dew- 
drops,  and  there  were  flowers  round  her  neck 
and  in  her  hair,  and  her  face  was  like  the  most 
perfect  flower  of  all.  And  she  came  close  to 
the  little  Rabbit  and  gathered  him  up  in  her 
arms  and  kissed  him  on  his  velveteen  nose  that 
was  all  damp  from  crying. 

"Little  Rabbit,"  she  said,  "don't  you  know 
who  I  am?" 

The  Rabbit  looked  up  at  her,  and  it  seemed 
to  him  that  he  had  seen  her  face  before,  but  he 
couldn't  think  where. 

"I  am  the  nursery  magic  Fairy,"  she  said. 
"I  take  care  of  all  the  playthings  that  the  chil- 
dren have  loved.  When  they  are  old  and  worn 
out  and  the  children  don't  need  them  any 
more,  then  I  come  and  take  them  away  with  me 
and  turn  them  into  Real." 

"Wasn't  I  Real  before?"  asked  the  little 
Rabbit. 

"You  were  Real  to  the  Boy,"  the  Fairy  said, 
"because  he  loved  you.     Now  you  shall  be 


<s4t  IcLSt  /  |k 


s£t  last  / 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

Real  to  every  one." 

And  she  held  the  little  Rabbit  close  in  her 
arms  and  flew  with  him  into  the  wood. 

It  was  light  now,  for  the  moon  had  risen. 
All  the  forest  was  beautiful,  and  the  fronds  of 
the  bracken  shone  like  frosted  silver.  In  the 
open  glade  between  the  tree-trunks  the  wild 
rabbits  danced  with  their  shadows  on  the  vel- 
vet grass,  but  when  they  saw  the  Fairy  they  all 
stopped  dancing  and  stood  round  in  a  ring  to 
stare  at  her. 

"I've  brought  you  a  new  playfellow,"  the 
Fairy  said.  "You  must  be  very  kind  to  him 
and  teach  him  all  he  needs  to  know  in  Rabbit- 
land,  for  he  is  going  to  live  with  you  for  ever 
and  ever!" 

And  she  kissed  the  little  Rabbit  again  and 
put  him  down  on  the  grass. 

"Run  and  play,  little  Rabbit!"  she  said. 

But  the  little  Rabbit  sat  quite  still  for  a 
moment  and  never  moved.  For  when  he  saw 
all  the  wild  rabbits  dancing  around  him  he 
suddenly  remembered  about  his  hind  legs,  and 
he  didn't  want  them  to  see  that  he  was  made 
all  in  one  piece.    He  did  not  know  that  when 

C313 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 

the  Fairy  kissed  him  that  last  time  she  had 
changed  him  altogether.  And  he  might  have 
sat  there  a  long  time,  too  shy  to  move,  if  just 
then  something  hadn't  tickled  his  nose,  and 
before  he  thought  what  he  was  doing  he  lifted 
his  hind  toe  to  scratch  it. 

And  he  found  that  he  actually  had  hind 
legs!  Instead  of  dingy  velveteen  he  had 
brown  fur,  soft  and  shiny,  his  ears  twitched  by 
themselves,  and  his  whiskers  were  so  long  that 
they  brushed  the  grass.  He  gave  one  leap  and 
the  joy  of  using  those  hind  legs  was  so  great 
that  he  went  springing  about  the  turf  on  them, 
jumping  sideways  and  whirling  round  as  the 
others  did,  and  he  grew  so  excited  that  when 
at  last  he  did  stop  to  look  for  the  Fairy  she 
had  gone. 

He  was  a  Real  Rabbit  at  last,  at  home  with 
the  other  rabbits. 


M 


THE    VELVETEEN    RABBIT 


Autumn  passed  and  Winter,  and  in  the 
Spring,  when  the  days  grew  warm  and  sunny, 
the  Boy  went  out  to  play  in  the  wood  behind 
the  house.  And  while  he  was  playing,  two 
rabbits  crept  out  from  the  bracken  and  peeped 
at  him.  One  of  them  was  brown  all  over,  but 
the  other  had  strange  markings  under  his  fur, 
as  though  long  ago  he  had  been  spotted,  and 
the  spots  still  showed  through.  And  about  his 
little  soft  nose  and  his  round  black  eyes  there 
was  something  familiar,  so  that  the  Boy 
thought  to  himself: 

"Why,  he  looks  just  like  my  old  Bunny  that 
was  lost  when  I  had  scarlet  fever!" 

But  he  never  knew  that  it  really  was  his  own 
Bunny,  come  back  to  look  at  the  child  who  had 
first  helped  him  to  be  Real. 

C333 


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